On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 6:00 p.m., Paul Karasik, Stuckeman Professor of Interdisciplinary Design and Visiting Professor of Graphic Design, will present an insider's backstage tour of the inner-workings of how gag cartoons work. Karasik is a cartoonist for The New Yorker and has lectured around the globe revealing the hidden language of comics. The lecture is free and open to the public, and Karasik will offer tips on how to enter The New Yorker Gag Caption Contest. No matter what, you'll never look at a cartoon the same way, again.

Karsik co-created (with David Mazzuchelli), City of Glass, the graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster’s book. It was named by The Comics Journal as one of the “Best Comics of the 20th Century” and has been translated in over 20 editions worldwide.

With his sister, Karasik created, The Ride Together, a Memoir of Autism in the Family, winner of the Autism Society of America’s “Best Literary Work of the Year” award. He also was the co-editor of Masters of American Comics, the coffee-table companion catalogue to the first major American exhibition of comics co-sponsored by the Hammer and MOCCA Museums, and his anthology celebrating forgotten comics visionary, Fletcher Hanks, received an Eisner Award, the highest honor in the field.

How to Read Nancy (fall 2017), co-authored with Mark Newgarden, is an in-depth study of a single Nancy comic strip to reveal the hidden lexicon of comics’ language. Karasik teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Penn State.

Contact Information

H. Campbell and Eleanor R. Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture The Pennsylvania State University 121 Stuckeman Family Building University Park, PA 16802 814-865-6112 | 814-863-8137 (fax)jlf47@psu.edu